Olympus Cameras, travels, my family and the outdoors

And then there were 3

So I totally failed at getting up those Florida vacation photos before the new baby as the new baby is now here.

Welcome Maggie (Margaret)! Born 3/25 (1 1/2wks early) at 7lbs3oz.

Some birth pictures to follow, but Florida pictures first (which I am hoping is before this weekend and birth pictures to immediately follow).

In other news, more related to photography, I must congratulate Olympus on naming their new micro 4/3rds camera the OM-D EM-5 and keeping the “OM” name alive (or reviving it as the case may be). This means I do not need to rename or move away from my old WordPress site name. Yes, I am going digital, finally. Most likely, though it could change, that means no more OM film gear posts, pages, etc. Film is not dead to me. I will keep my OM-1 and probably my Zuiko 24/2.8, 50/1.8 MIJ and 85/2. However, most likely all of my other film lenses will be sold off. For a time at least I am also going to keep my Zuiko 100/2.8, Sigma 70-210/2.8 and Sigma 400/5.6 to use with adaptors (along with the 50/1.8) on my new digital body.

Speaking of, I have pre-ordered an OM-D late last week. Hopefully that is far enough up the queue with B&H that I won’t have to wait much beyond the US release date. I am getting it body only along with the FL-300r flash as Olympus is running a rebate deal for April and May where you get the flash (or OM or 4/3rds adapter) for free after mail in rebate. I have also ordered a Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 lens from Ebay and will be ordering a Sigma 30mm f/2.8 lens the day my OM-D ships (same source, but it was unclear if non-preordered items that were going to be “held” to ship together with pre-order items would be charged at the time of ordering, or only at time of shipping). Hopefully the Pany 14/2.5 will be here before the OM-D is (estimated arrival time is between next Monday and Friday on the lens) and the Sigma 30/2.8 can/will ship the same day as the OM-D and arrive on my door step at the same time. I’ll also be stealing the OM to micro 4/3rds adapter that I gave my wife for her E-PL1 as she rarely uses it.

So the blog will be shifting from OM film reviews to OM-D/micro 4/3rds photography and reviews. All of the old film posts, pages, etc will be sticking around and I’ll possibly be adding to some of them a bit with discussions of how the legacy lenses are working on the micro 4/3rds body.

It became time for me to shift. Olympus has released a camera that I think I can love, even if it isn’t full frame. M4/3rds lens line up has filled in enough so that I can get all of the lenses I feel I need to handle the photography I want to do (I wouldn’t mind more, but all my basic bases are now covered). The camera size is what I need/want, the high ISO noise has improved to a level such that I feel it can handle anything I’d reasonably want to throw at it, pixel count is high enough I doubt I’ll feel a compelling reason to move beyond it (plenty for an 8×12, or a 13×19 or even larger if I don’t mind being a bit further from the picture, like for over a mantle or a stairwell wall), and the control layout and variety of controls means that I can still do manual exposure control without a painful and/or slow input process and even manually focusing looks like it won’t be that much harder and the EVF sounds awesome and the improved IBIS sounds/should be phenomenal. It isn’t everything I had dreamed off, but it is everything I need. Scanning film just takes up too much time with, now, 3 young children and I just don’t get the quality results with 35mm film and the scanning setup I have and am unwilling to invest in the equipment I’d need to improve that (at a price not that far removed from the OM-D body only is, and probably still couldn’t match the quality even with the best scanning equipment).

Pictures, thoughts, etc to come once the camera shows up, which I am hoping is by the end of next week…but who knows. My hope is with selling off camera gear and some old collectable cards (that turned out to be worth something 18 years on) I should be able to cover 100% of the cost of the OM-D and pair of lenses. So far I pretty much have with a couple of cards left to auction and quite a bit of camera equipment. The excess is going to be “banked” for future lens and equipment purchases. As it stands I plan on waiting until Thanksgiving/Christmas time frame to get any additional lenses. See what is working and what might not be with the 2 I am getting and the camera and work from there on what I need to fill in my lens line up next. Who knows, maybe something interesting will come out of this falls camera trade shows. Probably around then depending on how lucky I am with what I can get for selling of my current gear and what relatives might kick in for holiday presents I may get 1 or 2 lenses around the holidays.

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2 Responses

Congratulation for the OM-D! Really hope you will test your OM lenses on the digital body, that would be very interesting to me. Oh, and finally I have found a focusing screen for my OM4-Ti, so I am starting up with film while you move to digital. Good luck with the OM-D and looking forward the new posts about it.

Thanks! I am sure at some point I’ll test the lenses I have left, just not sure when I’ll be able to get to it. I am going to prioritize impressions/review of the OM-D and the 14/2.5 and 30/2.8 (especially the later since the reviews are currently thin on the ground) first. Move out from there to legacy glass, but I am pretty confident I’ll do at least a handful of lens tests and a quick review of what its like using them on the OM-D.